President Donald Trump caused outrage this week when he blamed the first fatal commercial air crash on U.S. soil in over a decade on "diversity" and disabled workers — just days after hollowing out airline safety regulator staff, reportedly on tech billionaire Elon Musk's advice.
But he made the entire "obscene" spectacle even worse with a new executive action that doubled down on his conspiracy theory while denying his own responsibility, Steve Benen wrote for MSNBC's MaddowBlog.
"What should’ve been a straightforward exercise — update the public and extend his sympathies — proved too challenging for the Republican president," wrote Benen. "While the recovery effort was ongoing in the Potomac River, and first responders pulled victims of the crash from the water, Trump decided to blame the disaster on Joe Biden. And Barack Obama. And Pete Buttigieg. And the FAA. And unnamed pilots. And perhaps most importantly, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs within the government."
Trump had no evidence for any of these things, wrote Benen, and the investigation of the crash is still in the earliest stages — but it got even worse when Trump signed an executive memorandum enshrining these conspiracy theories into administration policy.
The memo, Benen continued, faulted “problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden Administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration” — without naming any of those decisions or how they were illegal.
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All of this, he wrote, is "badly at odds with reality. The New York Times published a fact-check report on the president’s comments, highlighting a series of claims that were plainly false. The Washington Post published a related piece, noting that Trump’s current complaints were attacking the policies adopted by his own administration during his first term."
But Trump is showing no signs of backing down from trying to play air crash investigator, wrote Benen — continuing this morning with a rant on social media that the Blackhawk helicopter was "flying too high, by a lot," again without any evidence.
"Whatever his motivations, there’s no reason to believe the president will improve anytime soon," Benen concluded. "It’s going to be a long four years."